Thanking Jaap Sijmons
On 8 June Jaap Sijmons stood down as council chairman and general secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in the Netherlands.
The Anthroposophical Society in the Netherlands thanked Jaap Sijmons for his commitment. Mr Sijmons became chairman as well as general secretary of the Dutch Society in 2014. His successors for the two positions are Pim Blomaard (following an almost unanimous vote) and Rik ten Cate, respectively. Rik ten Cate started on his new task in May (Anthroposophy Worldwide 5/2019).
When Jaap Sijmons started in office he had to deal with a difficult situation caused by conflicts within the council management, but under his direction the new council was able to regain the trust of the membership. It was also during his term in office that the much-discussed decision was taken to buy the Vreedehuis in The Hague (Anthroposophy Worldwide 3/2018). In addition, Jaap Sijmons strengthened the ties with the Goetheanum, sat for three years on the extended Executive Council meetings and gave a number of lectures. He conveyed his best wishes to his successors for the preparation of the forthcoming centenary of the 1923–24 Christmas Conference, and added, «I am of course not saying goodbye to the Anthroposophical Society and will soon be at the Goetheanum for a whole week of Esoteric Science, with Christiane Haid, Michael Debus and Christian Hitsch. I also hope to finish writing a few things I have started in recent years.»
Conference Der Mensch und die Entwicklung der Welt, on Rudolf Steiner’s Esoteric Science (formerly Occult Science), 15 to 20 July 2019, Goetheanum
Web www.goetheanum.org/tagungen/de...